Gastrointestinal Conditions News

When treating pediatric patients with hepatitis C virus infection, physicians will inevitably have to counsel parents on whether to disclose their child’s HCV status to family, friends, the babysitter, and teachers, among others. While safety protocols should be sufficient to protect both parties, there is the concern that other individuals could be at risk of HCV exposure and should be notified; however, informing the community also involves possible social stigma for the child.

Clinicians dealing with pediatric hepatitis C virus infection currently have a key choice to make: treat children with toxic and moderately effective interferon-based therapy or wait until safer, more powerful direct-acting antivirals move through clinical trials and gain FDA approval for this population. As directly acting antivirals cure HCV in record numbers of adults, at the moment, for children, it is all just a matter of hope and speculation.

ORLANDO — Simponi safely and effectively treated moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis in pediatric patients, according to a poster presented at the Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Disease annual conference.

The CDC identified seven more people infected with an Escherichia coli O26 outbreak strain that was linked to food served at Chipotle restaurants.

WHO’s first report containing global estimates on foodborne-related illnesses revealed that nearly one-third of all deaths occurred among children aged younger than 5 years.

A phase 3 randomized controlled trial showed no benefit of the probiotic Bifidobacterium breve BBG-001 for preventing necrotizing enterocolitis, late-onset sepsis and mortality in very preterm infants.

Nineteen cases of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection, including five hospitalizations, are possibly linked to a celery and onion diced blend used to make Costco rotisserie chicken salad, according to the CDC.

New research showed that children with obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the UK fail to meet UK recommendations for exercise and diet, indicating efforts should be made to help improve existing guidelines. “This is the first study to assess dietary and activity patterns in a UK pediatric NAFLD population,” the researchers wrote.

A recently presented case-control study showed pediatric patients who experience infection with Clostridium difficile may develop reactive arthritis that is either unrecognized or misdiagnosed as septic arthritis.

SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers found deleterious variants in nearly all children presenting with primary sclerosing cholangitis, according to a poster presentation at The Liver Meeting 2015.